E98 Questions

[tbob]

After completing the set, I began putting together a red set and I have found that reds (with the exception of a few like Walsh) are much tougher to find, especially in nice shape. Just my 2 cents. Try and find a red Lajoie!

[Tim Kindler]

Sorry I didn't comment on this thread earlier, but in my experience with them, it is the Blue Backgrounds that have always (AND STILL) given me the most trouble. I rarely see blues come up , and when they do, they are usually in poorer condition. It's funny how different colors seem to be more difficult to different people collecting them. I will say that finding them is getting increasingly difficult no matter what background/player you are looking for. Don't let that large lot of them in Goodwin fool you. These lots don't come up for sale like this too often. I can't remember the last time I saw more than a few come up for sale individually until last night. Legendary had a near set about 5 months back, but you had to fork out $10 Grand to get it, just to get the few player/color combinations that you needed, which wasn't happening on my budget. Memory Lane also recently sold a complete set for over $13 grand.
Of course the Matty, Cobb, Wagner, Young, and Mack are going to be really expensive to get, but they are somewhat easier to find (Except for the Mack which is very difficult, except for Green Background) But, it has been my experience that the toughest 3 Hall of Famers to find (in any color) are in this order: Lajoie, Jennings, and Mack. Easiest for me have been McGraw, Chance, and Evers. Toughest 3 Commons in my opinion are: Coombs, Bridwell, and Dahlen. Easiest 2 are Mullin & Dooin. I will echo others in saying that the Commons are tougher to find for sale. Commons are certainly easier to purchase because they are substantually cheaper, but harder to find for sale than the Hall of Famers.
For example: I am still in need of 14 cards for the Master Set: 6 Blues,
3 Greens, 2 Oranges, and 3 Reds. 7 Commons and 7 Hall of Famers.

[HRBAKER]

I am not an E98 collector per se but I collect A's and I will tell you it took me several years to win a Coombs. They do not come up for sale very often and when they did I seriously misread the market for them for a long time. Finally snagged one in 2009.

[Tim Kindler]

Jeff,
Totally agree! Extremely tough, hence why Brian's "scrap" of Coombs earlier in the thread is even more impressive! Sweet card Brian!

[shammus]

Thanks Tim! You know, for a long time I thought the e98 set was a pretty clean set. Other than the highly scarce "old put" back which would turn up once in a great while, I didn't thinking there were any other variations, printing goofs or anomalies that were tied to e98s. However in the past several months alone, blank backed cards, oversized handcut cards, and cards missing colors have all surfaced. Kind of made this set much more interesting to collect in my opinion

[pcoz]

Great to see some threads on the E98's! The orange have been the most elusive for me. Although, I agree with Tim that the blue have been unquestionably in the poorest condition for some reason when found. In general, the E98's have dried up these past couple years. The Goodwin auction was an anomaly, but hope we see more as the year rolls on after seeing some stronger prices. Along with Tim, the most difficult HOF'ers I've found to be are Lajoie, Jennings, & Mack. Although, Clarke is close behind. The easiest HOF'ers are McGraw & Chance. Also, Collins seems to show up a little more than you'd think. The toughest commons IMO are Coombs, Bridwell, Dahlen & Tenney, in that order, and easiest being Mullin, Dooin & Ford. I'd put McLean as an underrated tough common as well.

[tbob]

It's surprising to me that Hippo Vaughn isn't being mentioned as a tough card in the set. Not that long ago it was generally considered to be the toughest to find, with Coombs a close 2nd.
I am still chasing a red Lajoie. It is amazing how tough that card is. I once had one in a PSA 3 holder but it was labeled an E93 Lajoie, presumably because the E93 Lajoie is not that tough to find and the E93 Lajoie has a reddish/purplish background with the same picture. The red Lajoie is a fire engine red and if you compare the two it is easy to see the difference. I keep checking every E93 Lajoie on ebay to see if there has been another labeling mistake but haven't found one. BTW, I crossed the Lajoie over to an SGC 40 but their first attempt at labeling had it as an E93 also! It is now in the possession of a board member as an E98 Lajoie correctly and I often regret that sale more than any other card I've sold...

[shammus]

Since we're comparing notes on "set toughies", I'll throw my 2 cents in -

For HOFers - always thought Clarke and Mack were tough and for a while I thought Walsh was too. Seen a lot more Walsh's the past couple years though. McGraw, Evers and Chance seem to be all over the place in my opinion.

Commons - At the top of my list would be Coombs and Vaughn - with the price on the red Vaughn a couple nights ago being more than enough evidence to show that it's a tough one. Tenny is right there with them though and after him would be Dahlen and Kling.

Really though, you could almost make an argument for just about any e98 common as a set toughie with the exception of just a couple cards. e98 commons are getting tougher in general and really starting to dry up. Look at Ebay right now and you'll see how many HOFers there are compared what few overpriced commons are available. If I had to pick one as the easiest, I would say it would have to be Dooin. But even the Dooin is not a card that you can just go out and buy immediately. Even that one takes some looking.